Mr Busy's Post: A Letter Book

brought as a present they loved it

In Mr Men Town there are only so many characters to do go around, so when the usual posty is off it is up to Mr Busy to step in and do the job. 'Mr Busy's Post' is a 'Mr and Miss' book that is all about being able to lift the flaps and read the personal mail of the characters of the town. As you imagine, the letters are pretty simple and reflect who they are sent to so Mr Messy is asked to tidy up etc. Some of the correspondence is actually a little too long, it is odd for such a basic book to have so much writing in places. The book has the feel of 'The Jolly Postman', but does not quite have the charm of that book. Thankfully, it has a little charm of its own.The Mr Men brand can do a lot to alleviate a book and this is certainly the case here. With no real story 'Post' is somewhat of a meandering tale, but you don't mind as it is packed with your favourite characters and is presented so well. The book itself is a chunky and well made hardback, with flaps that are ideal for a child to open. The bold images and colours are really attractive so if the story does not compel overly, the book itself does. I still think that it is a little lacking in meaning as many children will probably have to be told what a letter is now. Like a few of the new Mr Men tie in books it seems to have lost the essence of what made the books great and instead rely on the a little. This is still a decent book, just not exceptional.

After reading some negative reviews on Amazon I had low expectations with this book but was pleasantly surprised.The main issue other reviewers had (from a quick skim of some reviews) was the lack of plot. The plot is Mr Busy delivering post to various Mr Men and Little Miss characters with each item of post being a lift-up flap allowing the reader to see what is inside the envelop. I don't know what plot these reviewers were expecting from a book titled "Mr Busy's Post: A Letter Book"? If it were a Spot book would they be saying the same? Or is it because of the legacy from previous Mr Men books with their well-loved stories and this book deviating from that?Anyway this is aimed at a young audience, hence the hard card pages. It is aimed at the type of audience who will be quite happy to go through the book lifting the flaps each time. The book looks impressive too being hardcover, being almost A4 in size and being in full colour throughout. There is rhyme in the story too.The letters are from characters in the series, and some may benefit from reading the previous books, e.g. Little Miss Sunshine receives a letter from the King of Laughterland which relates to the original Little Miss Sunshine story, but you can get by without.My 4-year-old son says he likes it and that is the main thing.

This is a good size sturdy hardback book with card pages. It is well put together and the thick card makes it nice and easy for smaller hands to be able to turn the pages. The flaps mean that the book helps to keep young readers engaged when they perhaps might not yet be able to follow a story easily or cannot actually read the words themselves, but by being able to lift the flaps they become part of the story reading process.The book is full of the brightly coloured Mr Men and Little Miss characters we have all known well over the years. They are simply put together but still draw children to them again and again.As with other books where you have to lift flaps to keep the story going (Dear Zoo for example), our kids love being part of the process. They feel involved even when they cannot interpret the word themselves. This helps them to see books as something for them, not just for the adults around them and has helped to start an interest in books and stories from a young age. The storyline in this book is not especially complex or overly interesting but it doesn't need to be really, it is designed to engage children in more than one way to help foster a love of reading and it certainly does that with our small ones.Overall this book is nothing particularly innovative or new but it follows a tried and tested format using characters that we all love. In doing so it helps to engage children from the start and hopefully make them want to read more in the future.

While Mr Stamp is away (and not ‘ill’ as the product description currently says for some reason), Mr Busy delivers a series of letters and postcards to the famous names of Mr Men- Mr Tickle, Little Miss Sunshine, Mr Messy et al. Each double page spread consists of a very Mr Men-esque poem on the left about the delivery, then under the lap, a sometimes less poetic letter or postcard text written to that character.There are some sweet ideas here but some of the letters do some a bit prosaic. Plus, there’s so much text in some of them that you have to practically pull the entire flap off in order to read them.The authorship isn’t made clear within the book so I’m not sure how involved Adam Hargreaves was with this, but there’s definitely slightly less charm here than in the ‘classic’ books. The lift-the-flap concept is maybe a little bit too junior for the kids who’ll properly understand some of the jokes in the postcards and letters.On the plus side, the manufacturing quality is good, it’s a rugged hardback book that will withstand a lot of little hands and being pulled about. The print quality is fairly good, although some images are fuzzier than others.It’ll go down well with big Mr Men fans of a very young age, but for older kids who might be looking for a slightly more advanced bit of humour and daftness, it could be rather disappointing. It feels more like a cash-in than an inspired idea for a book, unfortunately.